I personally do not like the Real Player that much and use the freeware Real Alternative to play the content of that player. There might be however some users that actually like the player and would like to tinker around with the beta version. According to Cybernetnews the beta was not supposed to come out until the end of June.

I can’t really say much about the changes that have been implemented. One feature is a video downloader that is capable of downloading videos from sites like Youtube directly and play them in Real Player afterwards. It will also ship with VCD / DVD burning options which are available depending on edition of Real Player that you use (have purchased). The basic free version seems to ship only with VCD burning options.

While it seems to add several new features I have not seen anything that can’t be achieved with other free tools. I can download the videos using several Firefox extensions or the Orbit Download Manager. Burning is of course more comfortable with real burning softwares such as Nero Burning Rom.